White House mosque story a dangerous fake

your say February 18, 2017 01:00

Re: “Religious freedom as practised in the White House”, Letters, February 15.

Ian Martin is right to take issue with JC Wilcox’s mendacious statement that a “private mosque” exists in the White House. This is a classic example of the way conspiracy theorists will make selective use of facts, and manipulate them so as to produce a distorted version of reality which suits their agenda.

It is particularly regrettable that anyone here in Thailand should be holding such bigoted views, because Thailand, despite, or perhaps because, of being a majority Buddhist nation, has a long and noble tradition of tolerance towards different religious faiths.

The world does indeed face a serious threat from violent and extremist Islamist factions, with other Muslims being the by far the most numerous casualties, but displays of ignorance and bigotry towards Islam in its entirety are distasteful and serve no useful purpose whatsoever.